How much did it cost to restore our Airstream B-190 motorhome? The final tally...

When we bought this motorhome at the end of June, we knew it needed some work. But, due to that fact, we got it for what we thought was a good price at the time. Given what I know now (hindsight is always 20/20!) I think we may have actually overpaid by a little bit. 

Still, I think you'll see by the end of this exercise that we actually did okay!

Heading out on Tuesday!

I spent the day on Wednesday putting the window I had removed back together. All four of Igor's RV windows needed to be refurbished. The channels and tracks were all full of 31 years worth of gunk and had never been maintained. This causes the drain outlets to become blocked, and the windows start to leak.

It doesn't appear that they have ever leaked from the actual seal around the frames themselves. 

The parts have arrived!

The last major project on Igor is the RV windows. 

When we bought him, the exterior hadn't been washed in probably two years or more, and the windows were the same. The rubber seals had shrunk over time, and the drain channels were all gunked up and there was green stuff growing in them! 

Searching for fossils and another motorhome renovation complete!

All work and no play is no good, so we decided to take Cameron and his friend Chandler to Blue Beach for some fossil hunting. 

Blue Beach is a rocky shale beach where there have been numerous fossil finds in the rock. There is even a fossil museum at the location.

Always fun to get together with fellow travelers!

At some point in time, someone had installed a cyclone rotating sewer vent on Igor's roof. And these products actually work very well. But this one was in sad condition, and the installation hadn't been done very well in the first place.

Also, since we now have a diverter toilet and no black holding tank, we didn't have the need for a fancy vent cap. 

The rest of our time here in Canada

We are going to be in Canada until November 1st. A total of four months, which is the longest we have been here since the summer of 2018 when we drove up to the Arctic Ocean. 

So, what do we have planned for the balance of our time here?

Still waiting for a couple of things

When we had Bundy and Joyce, our RV in Australia, one of the things that was a problem was the lack of air space between the mattress and the bed frame. And because we were there in cooler weather, that caused a problem with condensation caused by our body heat when sleeping.

And our first motorhome Sherman did not have any kind of spacer either.

The biggest catch of the day!

We were on the road at 6:30am yesterday morning, headed for the popular coastal tourist town of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia where we had an 8:00am reservation to go deep sea fishing with Lunenburg Ocean Adventures.

Arrived at 7:30am to find it spitting with rain. And in the process of making sure grandson Cameron had everything he needed, Ruth realized that she had forgotten her own raincoat!

A frustrating problem solved...

Normally I do blog posts first thing in the morning. But on Wednesday the 21st we will be on the road very early, heading for the coastal town of Lunenburg where we are getting on a boat and going deep sea fishing for four hours or so.

This will be grandson Cameron's belated 13th birthday present from us.

Building the upper bed assembly

Our son in law Justin is a woodworker and construction guy, so he has all the necessary skills and tools to do this job. It's actually not a difficult job, and I could have done the whole thing myself. But what would take me a few hours, would probably take him thirty minutes!

And, most of his tools are in his van or at his current jobsite. So we managed to corner him on a Sunday to get this done!

Very pleased with the end result!

Back on Igor's roof yesterday! First part of the day was cleaning all the glue and residue from where the air conditioner had been installed. Then finished switching the air conditioner wiring over from 120 volt to 12 volt so that I could use the same wiring for the Maxxair fan.

Once again, more complicated than expected

Yesterday morning I got into taking off the roof air conditioning unit with the intention of replacing it with a Maxxair powered vent. 

The first problem is actually separating the unit from the roof itself. The air conditioning unit itself is fairly heavy... it probably weighs about a hundred pounds. So the second problem is actually getting it off the roof!

Another RV renovation update

I completed the solar installation, and moved on to the DC-DC charger. This is a piece of electronic equipment that enables the lithium batteries to be charged at a high rate of current while the vehicle is being driven. 

But to handle that high current, and the distance between the engine battery and the house batteries, I had to use fairly heavy 6 gauge cable. And run it the distance between the two.

Igor's new electrical system is almost finished!

Because we like being self sufficient, solar electricity is a "must have" for us when it comes to RV'ing. And we've done it for so long now that we're aware of our electrical needs.

I had bought a 200 watt RV solar kit that includes two 100 watt solar panels, all the wiring, mounting brackets, and charge controller. It was on sale at the time.

More motorhome renovation fun!

This part was actually not all that fun! 

On Friday, our new kitchen faucet showed up. We were very limited as to which faucet we could buy because of the angle of the body of the van where the kitchen sink is located. So when it showed up, the first thing I did was set it into place. Fortunately, it fit... with a half an inch to spare!